Information and Communications Technology - the case of teleworking.

Information and Communications Technology

- the case of teleworking.

Developments in information and communications technologies are having profound effects on employment in rural areas and also possibly on the competitive advantage of rural areas. This latter point will depend on the extent to which rural areas are able to ‘capture a higher share of information and knowledge related work than has been the case in the past.’ (Bryden, 1997). Bryden sees ‘information’ as a cash commodity, which is able to empower and to improve democracy, with great potential for development of rural areas which have hitherto seen less of the expansion in teleworking than have urban or semi urban areas.

ICT, while opening up new opportunities for rural areas, in cutting through the barriers of distance and the problems in accessing markets, can also pose dangers in job losses associated with automated banking, remote monitoring etc. However, Bryden points out that rather than focusing on direct employment creation through tele-defined businesses, more important for the future of rural areas is “the impact of telecommunications infrastructure on the competitiveness of rural firms in general, and the impact on employment in these firms if a positive strategy on telecommunications is not adopted.” (Bryden,1997)

Bryden also argues that the huge potential for the ICT revolution to be realised in rural areas can only be enabled through strategic planning in the public and voluntary spheres, rather than being left to the private sector. Without access to high speed, low cost digital communications networks, remote rural areas will be unable to realise the benefits of ICT work. Crucial to employers’ decisions to locate in rural areas is the availability of skilled labour, relatively low labour costs, access to government grants and the quality of telecommunications. There are certainly examples of significant ICT related businesses in rural Scotland – e.g. the Forres Telework Centre, Thurso Call Centre and the ICT Advisory Service in the Western Isles, but further investment in ICT would significantly improve the competitive advantage of rural areas.

Such investment has shown results in the Western Isles – one of the most peripheral areas of the British Isles. Initial developments in ICT related work in the Western Isles were spurred on by the £20m BT investment in high speed digitised exchanges in the Highlands and Islands. Smith (1998) describes an ‘increasingly targeted approach’ to the development of ICT in the Western Isles, which has enabled many new job opportunities, particularly in the area of tele-working. Smith also highlights the importance of ICT opportunities as helping to retain some of the young people in remote areas by providing skilled work, and also perhaps in encouraging young people who have left to return to the Western Isles.

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A teleworker is normally someone who is self-employed and possesses specific skills which are utilised by distant businesses on a contract basis. Teleworking can be done both at home or from a remote office, and offers new types of employment opportunities for remotely based rural populations – such as those in the Western Isles. Although the disadvantages of teleworking are often discussed – in the lack of a social environment in which to work, the lack of employee rights, benefits and promotion prospects; in remote areas with high unemployment and under-employment, it offers very real opportunities. Furthermore, the advantages of teleworking are significant: flexible working hours, ability to work from home, new opportunities to use skills and qualifications, and competitive incomes. Smith (1998) also points out that “home based teleworkers have been found to be more productive than their contemporaries in centrally located office environments, and more loyal employees, thereby reducing staff turnover and safeguarding (and indeed encouraging) investment in training programmes.”

The Western Isles

With a population density of only 0.1 persons per hectare, the Western Isles suffer from sustained population decline, and unemployment. In 1990 unemployment in the Western Isles was at 10%, increasing to 11.9% in 1994. Male unemployment in 1994 was at 16.6%. (Scottish Office,1995). The peripheral location of the islands means that many of the islands’ communities are distant from the main centre of Stornoway, which has a population of around 10 000. All the islands are affected by the long distances from markets, high transport costs and lack of access to services and market information. The islands are characterised by high unemployment, underemployment, depopulation (particularly through out migration of young people and the most economically active groups), low incomes and a high dependence on public sector employment, and on the declining traditional industries such as fishing and crofting.

Smith (1998) juxtaposes these weaknesses of the Western Isles economy with the internal strengths and resources that the islands’ population possesses. The tradition of self employment and the high standards of education in the islands mean there is a highly educated and adaptable workforce, able to switch from one form of employment to another. Smith points out that the development of both tourism and the ICT sectors have added to the increase of occupational pluralism in the islands.

Since the initial BT/HIE investment mentioned above, there has been further public sector support of the ICT industry in the Western Isles, particularly in the LEADER and ERDF initiative to aid the introduction of new technologies to the local business sector, assist diversification through new technologies and create new jobs through the marketing of the islands’ skill base.

The Western Isles Information Communication and Technology Advisory Service

The Western Isles Information, Communication and Technology Advisory Service (WIICTAS) was set up in August 1995. It was funded by ERDF (Objective 1), Western Isles Island Council (WIIC) and Western Isles Enterprise (WIE), following a year of research led by local entrepreneur Donnie Morrisson into the potential of teleworking in the Western isles funded by LEADER. This year of research resulted in the drawing up of a list of potential teleworkers in the islands – around 500 names of residents and people wanting to move back to the islands.

Donnie Morrison was appointed general manager of WIICTAS which established a file of potential teleworkers – 600 people by 1998, WIICTAS created a company on Benbencula – Lasair Ltd, able to manage contracts from anywhere in the world.

In 1995, Lasair was able to respond to an initial invitation to tender and landed an important contract with an American publisher specialising in indexing and abstracting business journals. The reviews (in printed form) were dispatched from California by courier and then distributed by Lasair to 35 people, 30 of whom were women, working from home, summarising the publications, indexing the various articles, adapting them to the specific characteristics of the electronic layout and putting them on the Internet.

The nature of the work means that these teleworking posts constitute an activity with real added value, which goes far beyond simple data entry and involves skills in editing, re-writing, re-reading, computer graphics, etc. "An experimental contract that we tried out in 1996 with the Scottish Health Board proved to us that purely 'mechanical' data entry was non-profitable because it faced fierce competition from Third World countries", points out Donnie Morrison.

Numerous other contracts have since been concluded, including : the production of digests and the indexing and abstracting of publications of the Home Office Forensic Science Departments ; the conversion onto CD-ROM of all the issues of the 'Scots Law Times', a Scottish legal journal ; the conversion to electronic mediums (Internet, CD-ROM) of numerous scientific works edited by the Oxford University Press (a two-year contract was concluded in January 1997 whereby approximately 50 people are employed on a full-time basis).

Lasair coordinates the services of around 100 freelance teleworkers while assuring quality control. LEADER has put up around ECU 35 000 to provide specialist training to the teleworkers. In time, the skills needed to join this teleworking pool have evolved : the ability to write good English is a must ; scientific or medical knowledge, for example, has supplanted purely IT knowledge (this can be acquired in the context of training programmes adapted to the specific requirements of each contract).

WIICTAS’s website provides businesses with information on outsourcing some of their work to the Western Isles. The website provides information on the potential workforce, property, training, marketing and financial assistance schemes.

Between 1995-1998 around 120 full and part time jobs were created, and now (2000) has created about 180 jobs. The company is now known as ‘Work-global.com’, and aims to create a further 100 jobs, and ensure the retention of most of the jobs already created. As well as the search for work for homebased teleworkers, WIICTAS is also working with development agencies to develop remote rural offices where people can be employed to provide services to companies who could outsource part of their work to the Western Isles.

The key aim of the initiative is to create jobs in the emerging networked economy, through both teleworking in rural areas, and office based job opportunities in the main population centres. The aims of work-global.com are to:

Create jobs in the Western Isles by matching skills to the needs of national and international clients, through marketing programmes;
Be a main contact point for clients looking to outsource work;
Help with guidance and advice for teleworkers on how to find work;
Attract inward investment in the ICT sector
Give advice on appropriate equipment and technical issues for teleworkers;
Provide information on employment and health and safety issues.

Crucial to the success and the development of the company is the energy and enthusiasm of the manager, Donnie Morrison. Donnie is responsible for most of the marketing, and travels extensively for meetings with potential clients thinking of outsourcing work to the Western Isles. WIICTAS acts as facilitator, offering advice on IT solutions, training, programmes, and drawing up contractual arrangements suited to a company’s particular requirements. It charges no fee for this facilitation service. The manager reports to the Steering group made up of the funding partners – WIIC and WIE.

The company also writes and distributes a quarterly newsletter, the “Hebridean Teleworker” with a circulation of over 800 people and companies, and keeps teleworkers informed of a wide range of current issues including job opportunities, new software, Internet and other IT developments, insurance and financial matters, and training opportunities.

WIICTAS has gone further in attracting significant inward investment to the Gleann Seilach Business park (built speculatively by Western Isles Enterprise in 1997) in a Customer Support Centre for Iomart, an Internet Service Provider with offices in London and Glasgow. This development has created another 60 jobs in Stornoway for teleworkers working in an office environment, and is expected to lead to around 100 newly created jobs. The main employment is in Help Desk services taking calls from customers who are setting up their internet and email access. Iomart provides in house training for all its employees.

Impact of the WIICTAS:

A database of over 550 profiles of potential teleworkers has been established
Approximately 180 jobs have been generated
Lasair is providing varying levels of work to around 35 home based teleworkers
Over 1 million Ecu income generated through individual teleworkers and via Lasair.
The mix of customers is as follows:

60% international (mainly USA)
15% local
25% UK

WIICTAS has been used as a model of good practice in the EU Territorial Employment Pact for the transfer of local development and employment to TEP regions in the EU. Last year the company won the European Telework Award – awarded to those who have made the greatest contribution to the development and uptake of telework in Europe. Donnie Morrison underlines the following factors as essential to the creation of a business such as WIICTAS:

Public sector support for start up

Need for a leader with entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to the project
Customers must be found who are outsourcing work and will commit to assign it to the teleworking organisation
Preparation of procedures and specifications that meet customer requirements
Ability to locate and train a pool of potential teleworkers
Regular reviewing of the company’s progress.

The benefits to those employed in teleworking are clear, in that these are essentially new jobs created in the Western Isles, jobs for both men and women, both home and office based, with flexible working patterns, and opportunities for both skilled and less skilled workers. Teleworking broadens the economic base of the Western Isles and appears to integrate well into the existing social and economic structure of the communities in which it has made most impact (Smith,1998). The success of WIICTAS also illustrates the benefits to employers in outsourcing their work to teleworkers in remote locations. “The advanced digital telecoms network enables the Hebrides to provide high-level services to clients anywhere in the world…We are currently reversing a certain spatio-temporal conception of work: instead of people having to go to work, the work is coming to the people.” (LEADER Local Action Group member).

References

Bryden, J. (1997) Rural Employment and the Information Highway. In Bollman, R and Bryden, J (eds) (1997) Rural Employment: An International Perspective. CAB International.

LEADER Magazine No. 19, Winter 1998-1999.

Rural-Europe website.

Smith, M. (1998) The European ICT Revolution – A Case Study on the Rural Economy of the Western Isles of Scotland. Paper given at Nordic- Scottish University Network conference, Riistina, Finland.

Work-global.com website